As I think about the prospect of using technology in my classroom, the first potential issue that comes to my mind is not that some students have limited access. I imagine that most students have computers at home and even if they don't I am sure that they have found ways to go online for recreational use so they can use those same resources to use a computer for educational use.
It is hard to picture what my classroom will look like, and if it will have computers. I am sure there will be some sort of computer lab in the school and I do not think it would kill a kid to use a study period to actually study on a computer if that is the only chance they have to get on a computer.
We are lucky in Portland to have such an awesome library system and an abundance of libraries. Students can use computers there for free, it will just require planning on their part. Most students probably have a friend or relative who would let them use a computer, that is what I had to do when I did not have the internet at home. If it came down to it I would be willing to stay after class or come in early once in a while if that was the only way for a student to get computer time. As the first acticle said, we do need to make sure that students lean enough technology to make it in the world.
The issue that coms to my mind is what will this technology training be replacing? If we are adding technology instruction to the curriculum then we will have to take other things out. We have to anticipate that students will be at all different levels of knowledge so if we integrate technology that we will have to teach it as well.

Powerpoint Pros & Cons

I really liked watching the Powerpoint presentations today, it was fun to learn more about my classmates and get a peek into their lives outside of school. I really liked the creativity in Josh's presentation, his slides had a good mix of text and photos and I loved his opening collage. I also liked how Kelsey used photos to give insight into her life and passions, they way her photos floated up into the slides (I don't know how to do that) was cool and the effect created by her final slide was great. She used the animations in a limited way which made them effective.
Rachel did a great job evoking emotion with her slides and video but some of her slides were really wordy, which I found distracting. Alexis and Scott both demonstrated a good use of graphs and graphics.
The things I found less engaging or more ineffective were the overuse of animations and too many words on a slide. The things I saw that bugged me the most were grammar and spelling errors. I think that as teachers those types of errors are unacceptable, especially when you are broadcasting them on a Smart Board.
If I were to redo my presentaion I would try to use a little more creativity and mix up the format of my slides. I think my preseatation was very "busy" and I relied too heavily on photos. I really need to learn everything that Powerpoint is cabable of so I can make my presentions more pleasing to the eye. I think that Powerpoint can be effective as a visual tool but it can also be overused. I was guilty of doing that in my mini-teach. I think I will use Powerpoint as a teacher when I want to show a series of photos or images but I don't think it is good to use as a crutch for lecturing.